Brad Pitt and Global Green Team Up

Global Green USA and Brad Pitt announced on April 19, 2006 that they are teaming up to sponsor a design competition to provide an opportunity for talented architects, urban planners, designers, ecologists and students to put forward a creative yet practical vision for New Orleans neighborhoods. Participants will be asked to put forth designs using green principles for the reconstruction of several New Orleans neighborhoods including a multi-use community center, single family home and multi-family housing. Brad Pitt is going to sponsor and will be the lead judge of the competition.

To register for the competition, click here.

“It is our hope that this competition will generate and uncover new and innovative ideas which will advance the practicalities of responsible architecture, as well as spark a long overdue rebuilding effort for the people of New Orleans,” said Brad Pitt. “Honoring the traditions of this unique city and the voice of its residents, our goal is to create designs -- and ideally built projects -- for neighborhoods which are stable, beautiful, sustainable and affordable. This competition asks the question can this catastrophe be turned into opportunity? Can we create for these neighborhoods and its families something even better than they had before? We encourage anyone with an idea to get involved.”

Download the official press release by clicking here.

We Cannot Tolerate Children Dying for a Glass of Water

Kevin Watkins
Wednesday March 8, 2006

The rich world must act to prevent dirty water and poor sanitation now killing more than a million children a year.

Nobody reading this started the day with a two-mile hike to collect the family's daily water supply from a stream. None of us will suffer the indignity of using a plastic bag for a toilet. And our children don't die for want of a glass of clean water.

Perhaps that's why we have such a narrow view of what constitutes a "water crisis". Dwindling reservoirs and a few ministerial exhortations to flush the toilet less often, and we've got a national emergency on our hands. Hold the front page, there could be a hosepipe ban in the home counties.


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How to get your design porfolio online, part 2

Using online photo albums

Aside from using arkispecs, another way of making your design portfolio available online is by using online photo albums. You might already by familiar with flickr, a photo sharing site that allows you to upload photos easily. Flickr has unlimited storage, but it allows you to upload only a certain number of images every month.

If you want a site dedicated to your portfolio that looks professional enough to impress clients, you can use Pro. It creates a site with a gallery of images from your flickr account. Here is a sample website that pro created. (Note: This isn't a design portfolio--but you can see how it works)

The advantages of Pro is that it looks very sleek and smooth, as it uses flash animation. But you have to have a flickr account first. My advise is to create a separate album within your flickr account for projects only, so clients don't get to see your personal photos. Make sure to title and caption the photos properly within flickr, so information about your projects are available when Pro creates the site.

The disadvantage is that the site URL that Pro creates isn't very memorable. It looks too complicated to put in a calling card. But it can be pasted inside your emails to prospective clients or linked from your personal site.

Know any other photo hosting sites that displays photos nicely? Feel free to suggest :)

Next: Creating your own website

Windows have rights

This is Friedensreich Hundertwasser's philosophy of window design.



Some people say houses consist of walls. I say houses consist of windows.

When different houses stand next to each other in a street, all having different window types, i.e., window races, for example an Art Nouveau house with Art Nouveau windows next to a modern house with unadorned square windows, followed in turn by a Baroque house with Baroque windows, nobody minds.

But should the three window types of the three houses belong to one house, it is seen as a violation of the racial segregation of windows. Why? Each individual window has its own right to life.

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